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Author Profile – Andrew Lane

I’m sure all my readers know how much I love to write fanfiction. I write fanfiction for The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, and even Owl City. Sometimes, I’d rather work on my newest fanfiction idea than work on my current novel. Alas, one can’t make a living from writing fanfiction. Well, at least that was what I used to think. One author, however, has made a career out of being a fan. Andrew Lane is the author of what could be called a Sherlock Holmes “fan” series, the Young Sherlock Holmes books. He’s also written some other fan works, such as several spin-off novels for BBC’s TV show Doctor Who and a collection of books on James Bond.

He first knew he wanted to be a writer when he was ten. In an interview I watched on YouTube from MyKindaBook (clip at the bottom of the post), Mr. Lane tells how he read a short story about the Daleks in Doctor Who. When he read that story, something clicked in his ten-year-old mind. It was that story that made him realize that “real people actually write books” and that “since I was a person, therefore, I could be a writer.” From that point onwards, Mr. Lane knew what he wanted to be: a writer.

It was another childhood experience that made Mr. Lane a life-long Sherlock Holmes fan. He said in an interview that the first book he bought “with his own pocket money” was the Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. He described the book saying that, “It didn’t look particularly exciting. It didn’t have a cover on it. It was just like a hardback, orange, battered, pages slightly torn.” Something about the story drew him in though, and Mr. Lane became a Holmes fan from that moment forward.

Years later, Mr. Lane was approached by his agent. Mr. Lane’s agent had been working with the Doyle family, and had mentioned the idea to them of having a young adult Sherlock Holmes series. It was an idea that the family approved of. In an interview with The Book Zone (link at the bottom) Mr. Lane said that, “Having got their blessing, he then came to me because he knew I loved the originals and that I’d always wanted to write a ‘real’ Sherlock Holmes novel.” He spent the next three months creating the first couple chapters in order to pitch it to the family. They agreed and the series was born! Today, Mr. Lane currently has written six Young Sherlock Holmes books as well as releasing a series based on another Doyle work, The Lost World. He really has made a living being a fan! That might be one of the best jobs ever. 🙂

Here is the interview I watched. It’s a bit long, but really enjoyable (especially getting to listen to his British accent! 🙂 ). I could relate to his characters doing things he never expected them to do!